Initial impressions on day 2

[OliverTypes 152]

A mere year after purchase, I finally got the phone this Tuesday. Here are some initial impressions of my QWERTZ model.

So far, this is a keeper. The packaging is great which is always a good start. Build quality of the phone is very nice safe for the rattle which I will fix with tape once I am 100% certain I’ll keep the phone. As was said before, the Pro1 is one thicc boi but the heft is reassuring and the phone does not feel slippery. The hardware exudes quality. I like it.

Some issues and ideas:

• Somehow my SD card got busted, still not sure whether this is a card or phone issue, will test with a replacement card. Not a killer at this point since the phone is roomy, I would have preferred to store stuff on card though, obviously.
• There is a ticking/clicking noise coming from the headphone port at times, which is rather irritating, especially when no audio is playing. This seems to be a hardware issue and it really should not be there tbh. It can seemingly be „fixed“ by twisting the jack a little but will come back. A better solution is using less sensible headphones which the phone drives surprisingly well. I have seen the discussion here but not tried the Viper script yet.
• The sim tray is from hell and should be replaced with a push-pin solution in future models for the sake of our fingernails. Orientation of the tray is also counter-intuitive.
• The power button should be replaced with the spring-loaded solution found in the Nokia E7 and should also activate the flashlight.
• Bluetooth audio was a disaster with my ancient Nokia Play 360 speakers until I discovered that switching off HD-Audio will fix it. This also seemed to make connections to my speaker less error-prone when connecting them to my Nokia 7.2 – so if you have ancient BT car stereos or speakers, give that a try!
• I had some trouble finding out where the NFC chip is located since there is no logo and no clue about it in the documentation. The location is well selected though, unlike on my Nokia 7.2 which has the chip in the middle of the phones back for some absurd reason.
• Vertical use can be a hassle with some apps. Most annoying: facebook works fine in vertical but forces you into portrait once you start composing a post. Here, and in most other cases, splitscreen is the answer.
• Talking about splitscreen, the Android OS developer responsible for making variable splitscreen-sizes available in portrait but not in vertical needs a stern talking-to.

And than there is the keyboard. Ahhh, the keyboard. It almost made me want to quit the phone but now I am slowly getting the hang of it. I can feel my brain working as I stumble out my texts but since that is a learning sensation, it is highly welcome. Installing SwiftKey gives you some speed and the keys feel good. I still keep pushing delete instead of backspace but that will pass, I guess.

What should be improved:

• The backlight is not very even, this could be better.
• The backlight could be brighter and there should be an option to modify its behavior/force it on.
• The caps-lock key is too wide. I keep pressing it by accident. A future model should have a smaller caps-lock key that keeps a little distance to the „A“.
• It would be amazing if one could wake the phone by pressing the keyboard instead of feeling around for the power button.
• Modifiers should be sticky, I think this is general consensus by now.

Now, I have yet to do the old people thing and actually make a call but that’s another adventure for another day.

Edited August 5, 2020 by OliverTypes

[hka 131]

You can wake the phone using the keyboard by pressing Alt+Sym on stock 🙂

 

Edited August 6, 2020 by hka
with finqwerty installed

[EskeRahn 5,460]

1 hour ago, OliverTypes said:

It would be amazing if one could wake the phone by pressing the keyboard instead of feeling around for the power button.

FinQwerty fixes that and other minor keyboard quirks for Stock. I can HIGHLY recommend it. it is NOT something running, just a loader presenting more layout files to the system. And thus works fine with SwiftKey too.

[Craig 1,435]

On 8/5/2020 at 12:50 PM, OliverTypes said:

delete instead of backspace but that will pass, I guess.

What should be improved:

• The backlight is not very even, this could be better.
• The backlight could be brighter and there should be an option to modify its behavior/force it on.
• The caps-lock key is too wide. I keep pressing it by accident. A future model should have a smaller caps-lock key that keeps a little distance to the „A“.
• It would be amazing if one could wake the phone by pressing the keyboard instead of feeling around for the power button.
• Modifiers should be sticky, I think this is general consensus by now.

 

I've had mine more than 6 months and initially had problems with backspace/del too but as you suggested, you get used to it, I forgot about it until you mentioned it now, but remember it did bug me at first.

Wake on keypress and kbd backlight on keypress and sticky shift all work in LineageOS.....  but yeah still waiting for those fixes on stock... hopefully soon....

The kbd backlight is weak, but for me it's enough to see the keys even in pitch dark, but hardly noticeable its on in dim light but still can see keys.  But I imagine your behavior is the same as everyone's, so it is what it is, maybe pro²... and same for the capslock key size (or is it even needed at all?  shift-shift enables capslock on lineage and could on stock..)

Edited August 6, 2020 by Craig

[OliverTypes 152]

The wake on alt+sym did not work on my stock but it now works after installing the FinQwerty kb.

[hka 131]

3 hours ago, OliverTypes said:

The wake on alt+sym did not work on my stock but it now works after installing the FinQwerty kb.

Forgot I had that one installed! But it seems to be true that it is needed.

[SchattengestaIt 559]

On 8/5/2020 at 9:50 PM, OliverTypes said:

I had some trouble finding out where the NFC chip is located since there is no logo and no clue about it in the documentation. The location is well selected though

Would you mind sharing the information with us? I have some devices (receiver) where the NFC doesn't work and I wonder if I am holding it wrong.

[OliverTypes 152]

7 hours ago, SchattengestaIt said:

Would you mind sharing the information with us? I have some devices (receiver) where the NFC doesn't work and I wonder if I am holding it wrong.

It's centered on the upper end of the backside, about in line with the upper camera.

[FlyingAntero 871]

7 hours ago, SchattengestaIt said:

Would you mind sharing the information with us? I have some devices (receiver) where the NFC doesn't work and I wonder if I am holding it wrong.

You can se NFC antanna in the picture below. It is the black line around the camera module. For me it works best when try to aim to the mic.

Edited August 27, 2020 by FlyingAntero

[OliverTypes 152]

A little further up than you'd think it is.

 

Edited August 27, 2020 by OliverTypes

[OliverTypes 152]

Ahhh, it's around the camea module? Genius, that should be in the manual! Works a treat! Here it is, the fxtex pro1 NFC position:

 

[SchattengestaIt 559]

Thank you all a lot! Knowing that it is slightly more to the upper right (I thought it would be centered, slightly above the FxTec logo) might help with future tries of payments.